Wildcats and Canadians battle to 4-4 double OT draw

NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE

Release Date: Sunday, Nov. 27, 2016

Wildcats and Canadians battle to 4-4 double OT draw

ELLIOT LAKE, Ont. – The Elliot Lake Wildcats let an early three-goal lead slip away before eventually settling for a 4-4 double overtime draw with the Rayside-Balfour Canadians Sunday evening in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at Centennial Arena.

It was all Elliot Lake in the opening 20 minutes as they struck three times in the back half of the opening stanza to take early control.

Damian Figueira put the Wildcats on the board at 11:43 while Quinn Robelle followed with his fourth of the season just over three minutes later.

Carson Andreoli then struck shorthanded for the home side with 23 seconds left in the frame.

Rayside-Balfour opted to replace starter Owen Johansson in favour of Cameron Lamour to begin the second and the move appeared to spark the Canadians as they got tallies from Tristan Simm during a man advantage at 2:35 and one from Bradey Johnson at even strength at 5:33 to move to 3-2.

Elliot Lake did go back up by two eight minutes after that however compliments of Brennan Kelly only to see Johnson counter in the final minute to pull the visitors back to within one entering the intermission.

In the third period Rayside-Balfour’s Danny Lepage picked up the equalizer 56 seconds in to force extra time and saw the Wildcats replace netminder Matt Kostiw in place of Justin Richer.

Action in each of the two five-minute OT sessions did not produce a winner as the game ended in a tie.

Kyle Liinamaa had two assists for the Canadians in the game.

Kostiw allowed the four against on 29 shots for Elliot Lake while Richer handled all 18 attempts he saw in relief.

Johansson saw 16 shots in one period with Lamour turning aside 24 of 25 in 50 minutes of work.